OTOH the bloated "wall of sound" or "room filling sound" that was popular decades ago fatigues me.
I agree with the wall of sound, or as I call the Bose effect, not being satisfying. Yes, that's how most live music sounds, except coffee house settings with one or two players, you can't hear individual instruments or vocals pinpointed in space even at unamplified events. However IMHO we're not recreating a live event, we're painting a picture of that event. Just as a painting can evoke more emotion by emphasizing aspects of reality more so than a photograph, so can our stereo systems by presenting a detailed soundstage with separate images. Another way to say it is we aren't recreating a live musical event, we are recreating the recording of that event.
So torturing the metaphor some more, is it color or composition that matters more to you in a painting. For those who would just buy a different speaker, art stops at Rembrandt. Others may wish to continue on in the gallery and admire Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso. For our hypothetical, the speakers are both works of art, just by different artists (designers).
